[2] The museum is part of a cultural and administrative complex on the site of the former St. Augustine's Indian Residential School, which closed in 1975, the last remains of which were burned in 2008.
[5] It is a mortuary stone about 3,500 years old, commemorating a chief's wife who drowned herself after the death of her only son.
[4] The stone was discovered in 1921 and was sold to the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) by chief Dan Paull in 1926 for $25 for its safekeeping.
The shíshálh had requested its return in 1976 but at that time had no suitable accommodation for it, and the MOV offered to make a replica for them.
Leaders went to the museum to prepare the stone for its journey with prayers and rituals, and it was wrapped in a hand-woven Salish blanket and packaged in a crate lined with cedar.